Ariel Winter's Mother Speaks Out After Daughter Temporarily Removed From Her Custody

November 8, 2012 09:07 PM EDT

The mother of “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter released a statement on Thursday, responding to news that she has temporarily lost custody of the 14-year-old actress, following claims of physical and emotional abuse against the minor.

In Chris Workman’s (Ariel’s mom) statement, she seemed to suggest that her daughter’s relationship with an18-year-old may have played a role in the situation.

“My fourteen year old daughter has been dating [an eighteen-and-a-half-year-old] man and when I caught them engaging in behavior that I feel my daughter is too young mentally and physically to understand and fully grasp I put a stop to it immediately,” Workman’s statement read. “Being a teenager ‘in love’ I thought she would cry and sulk and eventually her broken heart would heal. I would have never [have] dreamed, that she would take it to this level.

“Yes, I filed charges against him because legally he is an adult and if he wants to engage in adult behavior with a minor [then] he should also be ready to suffer adult consequences for his actions and poor judgment,” the statement continued. “I will not apologize for protecting my daughter, as she means the world to me and I will always be there for her and I will always protect her to the best of my ability until the day I die.”

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Workman was ordered to have no contact with her daughter until a November 20 hearing.

She is accused of “ongoing physical abuse,” including slapping and hitting, along with name-calling and personal insults.

In Chris Workman’s Thursday statement, she claimed Winter’s older sister has long been “estranged” from the family.

“As for my estranged daughter, who has come out of the woodwork once it was announced that the kids on the show got a big raise recently, I will only say this, she has only seen her little sister maybe ten times in the last fourteen years, they have no relationship and her motives are not out of love, but out of spite,” Chris Workman’s statement continued. “She had problems as a child and she and I have maybe seen each other a dozen times in the last twenty years. I made a conscious decision years ago to distance her from the family because of the lies she told on me so many years ago. I never wanted her unstableness to effect Ariel or anyone else in the family. My biggest nightmare is now being played out in the public arena for people to make judgments on me and my daughter and our family… I only hope that as quickly as this blew up, that it will go away just as fast and Ariel will come home and we can move forward with love as a family.”

On Tuesday, responding to news she was now Winter’s temporary guardian, Winter’s sister, Shanelle Workman told Access, “It is not appropriate for me to talk about this.”